Homemade With Love = Most Practical Cookbook I Now Own!

Homemade with Love: Treasured Family Recipes by Marilyn Boyer is like sitting down and thumbing through Mrs. Boyer’s personal recipe box (especially when she shares a memory with a recipe)…and you know those types of boxes are filled with tried-and-true family favorites!  I was amazed at how many recipes were quick, easy and kid-friendly.  Most of the recipes called for items that we usually have on hand making this cookbook extra practical.  The pictures included with some of the recipes were helpful and showed me that my food doesn’t have to look like a fancy Food Network dish in order for it to be a big hit with my family.  And, after making homemade crescent rolls for the first time following Mrs. Boyer’s easy recipe, I doubt we will ever buy crescent rolls from a blue can again! 

Since we are family of three (compared to feeding the Boyer’s 14 children) plus deal with severe nut allergies in our home, I wasn’t sure how well this cookbook would fit our lifestyle.  But I was pleasantly surprised and excited to find that the majority of the recipes did not make super-large quantities nor included a lot of nuts.  The recipes that include nuts are ones that we can substitute and still have a great dish.  It was an extra bonus to find a cookbook that gave us a lot of new recipes that we could use as written.  Homemade with Love has quickly become my favorite “go-to” for fast, delicious recipes that I know my family will like!

For more info on the cookbook, visit Homemade with Love: Treasured Family Recipes.

Of course, in order to honestly review this book, we wanted to try out a few recipes and turned it into a life skills class!  My child had a blast learning how to follow directions, read fractions and other cooking basics!  If a 6 year old can make crescent rolls, then anyone can!  :)  Here are a few pictures from our cooking session!  Enjoy! 

Learning how to make triangles

Sampling at every stage

Painting on the butter for the One-Hour Yeast Rolls

Our first attempt at making crescent rolls (One-Hour Yeast Rolls recipe)

Little Cheddar Meat Loaves cooking in the oven ... YUM!

He Called Her Daughter

“My faith—weak, made bold
In Him—captured His power.
He calls me daughter."
~Catherine Meaney

You know how you can read something in the Bible a hundred times but on the 101st time, it's as if you've just seen that verse for the very first time?  I've grown up hearing about the woman in Mark 5:21-34 who was in a desperate place in her life.  She needed a kind of healing that man couldn't produce since all human attempts at healing left her worse off both physically and financially. She was probably worn from the stress and weariness that comes with a long-term illness.  And she probably felt quite lonely as many who called themselves "friends" deserted her a long time ago when they ran out of things to say or saw all the unanswered prayers or got busy with their own lives and forgot about her. 

Desperate for hope and healing, this bleeding woman did what she could to literally reach out to Jesus because He was all she had left.  She did what she could believing it was enough.  And instantly, it was enough and she was healed!  She didn't walk away but rather expressed her faith as she admitted that she was the one who touched Jesus.  That expression of faith opened up the door to grace and blessing as Jesus said, "Daughter, your faith has made you well.  Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction." Mark 5:34.

Did you catch that Jesus called her daughter?! When I saw that the other day, I was floored.  How many times have I glossed over that word and totally missed the implication of that all-important word??  Daughter!  She did nothing at all to deserve the title "daughter" except live out her faith.  "The faith that is demanded is a confident trust which derives value not from the one who expresses it, but from the object (Jesus) in which that faith rests." (The Bible Knowledge Commentary)

The Message version of Mark 5:34 says, "Jesus said to her, "Daughter, you took a risk of faith, and now you're healed and whole.  Live well, live blessed!  Be healed of your plague." 

This woman wasn't just healed, she was made whole in every way--physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.  Sometimes, we claim God's healing and forget the wholeness aspect of it.  We either hang on to the memories or the feelings of our brokenness and fail to fully move forward.  We inwardly harbor things said or done to us as friends left our side when we needed hope and encouragement the most.  We let fears and "what if's" paralyze the healing that is taking place.  And we give into that weariness of always fighting for faith that we forget to rest in our faith and continue on trying to manufacture our faith.

God doesn't desire us just to be healed but He desires us to be whole.  And that wholeness comes when we hear Jesus calling out, "Daughter..." and we realize that He is talking directly to us!  The love and acceptance that is conveyed in that one word has the power to destroy anything that hinders us from wholeness and it allows us to "Go in peace, and be healed of [our] affliction."

Amazing!!

Need a Family Gift Idea??

As a child, I remember my parents reading me the Christmas story from a special book every year!  While this Christmas book simply quoted the Scripture, there was just something extra special about my mom pulling out that book and reading it to us.  I had been looking for a book like that for years so I could carry on that tradition with my family.  However, I've turned up empty-handed until I ran across "Uncle Rick's Holiday Book"!

Uncle Rick's Holiday Book by Rick & Marilyn Boyer (Character Concepts) is a "coffee-table"-worthy book!  It lays out the history and significance of ten different holidays as well as includes a section sharing holiday-themed ideas, recipes and additional resources.  The pages are colorful and captivating especially for younger children.  I'm sure my child will remember the photographs on these pages when he is an adult as much as I remember the pages from that special book that my mom read to me!

Uncle Rick removes all the holiday consumerism and shares the facts and intent surrounding each holiday while giving great honor to God and the Christian principles that our Nation was founded on. 

We have this book on display in our home and I've enjoyed watching guests of all ages nonchalantly pick up this book and end up engrossed in one of the holiday stories!  They usually light up with excitement because they learned something new or close the book with appreciation for the author as he preserves the truth of these holidays. 

We can't wait to purchase more of these books to give away as gifts!

Holidays Included:

February 22 -- George Washington's Birthday
Spring -- Resurrection of Jesus
May 30 -- Memorial Day
June 14 -- Flag Day
July 4 -- Independence Day
September 14 -- The Star-Spangled Banner
October 12 -- Columbus Day
November 11 -- Veteran's Day
November -- Thanksgiving
December 25 -- Christmas

Days Like Today...

Some days, I seriously question why in the world we are homeschooling!  Mainly these questions pop up after an exhausting battle-of-the-wills type of day where even Lisa Welchel would be stumped to come up with a "Creative Correction" for my creative child! 

But, these questions faded off into the distance as some major prayer, perspective, alone time (well, it was in the form of a solo trip to Walmart, but I'm not ashamed to claim it), and a mom-only splurge at Dairy Queen refreshed this worn-out mama! 

Of all of the clever (but defiant or attitude-filled) things that my child said today, three moments really stand out! 

1.  My 6 year old was at the window longing to be outside riding his bike with the neighborhood kids.  But, since it was a struggle all day for NoNut to pay attention or to even have motivation to do his work, our school day was done in chunks.  By 4:30 p.m., we weren't even halfway through our day because character training, discipline, nap time and time outs took precedence over education.

I told NoNut that he could not play outside until all of his school work was completed.  He moped over to the kitchen table and sat down roughly with his copywork.  Then, he said matter-of-factly, "I'm going to shortcut the system!" (Huh???  From a 6 yr old???!!!)  And my child proceeded to "shortcut" his handwriting assignment in hopes of riding bikes.  After what we had gone through today, NoNut did not disappoint (he is a cross between my husband and I after all)! 

NoNut's idea of "shortcutting the system" was to write the first and last letter of each word of his copywork and hope I didn't notice that the rest of the letters were missing.  He proudly turned in his work with no reservations and was even appalled that I made him redo it correctly! 

2.  Earlier this afternoon, NoNut was whining over math.  (Did I mention that everything was a struggle today?)  He made a comment about needing to get on his superpowers.  And that is when I had had enough of all the make-believe play and talk.  I informed my child that he is not Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael, or any other Ninja Turtle!  And his look was one of pure shock, horror and disbelief that I would tell him that he was not a Ninja Turtle.  That was one of those mom-phrases that I never dreamed I'd be uttering in my lifetime, but the look on his face was priceless!  

3.  We ended our long, drawn-out school day by closing out our zoology unit.  We were discussing ocean life and why fish travel in schools.  I asked NoNut to pretend that he was a fish all by himself in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.  Of course, we had the map and globe and he had to point out exactly where he was swimming (which at that point, my patience was shot).  I then went on to tell NoNut that a shark was coming up on him.  What would he do?  Where would he hide?  What happens next?  I was writing down notes from today and was waiting for NoNut to tell me his answers.  But, all I heard was silence.  Oh, I felt the emotions rising and I was done...no more!  However, out of the corner of my eye, I see this little smirk and noticed NoNut's eyes were looking at his finger which was pointed upward toward heaven.  All of a sudden, I realized that NoNut was answering my question after all!  And, he was right!!  Laughter bubbled out of me as I realized that we had quite a day and that we will have really off days (thankfully, it doesn't happen quite often over here), but it truly is okay!  At the end of the day, this is my child, not my student!

NoNut has a unique, creative, humor-filled brain that is so opposite from my serious, task-oriented brain and it's such a joy to see how his brain works.  These are moments with him that I'll never get back and moments to be cherished rather than wished away out of frustration.  And while some moments bring out the worst in us, other moments bring out the best in us!  All of these moments become reminders that I'm every bit of a work in progress as my child is.  Heidi St. John, author and homeschool mentor, summed it up perfectly in her blog today: 

"I should know…I have been there. I’m the mom who watches the school buses drive away and wonder what those other moms do all day. My husband has watched me have total meltdowns, and he has helped remind myself that this homeschool journey that I am on is as much about me as it is about our children.

I want you to know that homeschooling IS hard, marriage is hard, parenting is hard."

(You can read more at Heidi's blog:  http://heidistjohn.com/tbmb/hope-floats/.)

Hard it is...especially on days like today!  Yet in it all, God was there.  He took every question I had this afternoon and replaced it with love, forgiveness, reassurance, peace and laughter!  And He refreshed me to the point where I can say with anticipation, "Bring on tomorrow!"  It can only get better from here!  :)